LocallyGrown.Net -- Small Farms Making a Difference

This page lists all of the frequently asked questions (and their answers), as entered into the system by the market managers. If you have a question not answered here, please contact one of the managers -- their contact information should appear elsewhere on these pages.

How long will it take to get me started?

Well, if you are yourself a grower with products ready to sell and you’ve already got just a tiny bit of experience with websites, you can be ready to accept your first order in fifteen minutes. Seriously.

In reality, though, it’ll take most markets a couple of weeks to get everything working. Most of that time will be spent getting the growers set up with accounts, adding product listings, publicizing the page to your customers so they can create accounts, get the details of what days orders can be placed and when and where the pickups will be. That sort of thing.

Very little time will actually be spent at the website — it is pretty much ready to go right out of the gate.

What will it cost?

Markets can be created for free, but the market managers will pay LocallyGrown.net 3% of their market product sales to cover site upkeep and other expenses.

From there on, the market managers control all of the other costs. Like at a traditional “booths and tables” market, the market manager may charge growers a fee to sell through the market, and they may also charge customers a small yearly membership fee to cover their expenses.

Even so, the costs of operating (and shopping at) a LocallyGrown.net market are substantially less than all of the costs that go into operating a traditional farmers’ market.

This is great! Can I donate money to you?

Well, thanks! I’ve gotten wonderful feedback about the system from people literally around the world, and that means a lot to me.

I do charge the markets 3% of their sales to cover my expenses keeping the site online. By combining the resource needs of hundreds of markets, I’m able to secure a single world class host for much less than all of those markets trying to do their own thing. That 3% is calculated to cover my day to day expenses and be cheaper than what those markets would have to pay (or trade) for someone to set up a similar online system on their own.

That said, there are countless hours I’ve put into programming the site. I took a year off from growing on my farm so I could concentrate on getting this done. If you’d like to send a little something extra in appreciation, I certainly won’t turn it down.

Here’s my PayPal info:

If you’re a Warren Buffet type wanting to be extra generous, I’ve always thought a Sun Horse Gardening System would be a great addition to the farm.